To follow in Sarah Bunin Benor's footsteps, I too would like to send out a "seeking folks with similar interests" feeler for a possible NWAV 40 panel. The panel I am seeking interested researchers for is something I have tentatively called "New Perspectives on Vowel Shifting". Included below is a very brief summary of what I see a panel such as this one concerning itself with.

New* Perspectives on Vowel Shifting

The general purpose of this panel would be to bring together a series of papers that either expand on established perspectives on the "nuts and bolts" of how vowel shifts work (e.g., the work of Labov, Martinet, Jespersen) or present alternative perspectives to these established views. Examples of research presenting alternative perspectives that spring to mind most easily for us include: work in natural phonology by scholars such as Donegan (1978); work drawing on differing implicit or explicit takes on Schuchart's (1885) and Vennemann's (1972) conceptions of phonetic analogy as playing a significant role in vowel shifting processes (e.g., Gordon, 2001; Boberg, 2005; Durian, Forthcoming); and recent work on vowel shifting by scholars such as Roeder and Jarmasz (2010) which adopts the perspective of vowel dispersion theory. By bringing together scholars who have adopted different takes on vowel shifting, we hope to enhance the building of phonological and phonetic models of vowel shifting, both from the vantage point of studies of production as well as perception.

(* We are currently debating whether "Alternative" might really be a better word to use here, since some of the less well-explored alternative perspectives draw on discussions that certainly not new, even though they may be new to folks who may not have been introduced to them previously.)

If you know of anyone who might be a good researcher to participate in this panel, or if you are that researcher, please send me an email at either address below.

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Thank you!

Best,

David

David Durian
Adjunct Professor of English
Joliet Junior College

Graduate Associate (A.B.D.)
Department of Linguistics
The Ohio State University